Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles Visits Mpls., Previews New Album

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Jennifer Nettles has had a lot of success with the group Sugarland, but now she’s getting ready to hit the airwaves with a solo project.

Nettles visited Minneapolis on Monday to promote her new album. She also put on a small show at the new Cambria Gallery on 7th.

“I wanted to be able to offer my fans a different intention than Sugarland is. I have a lot of fun on stage in Sugarland and it’s big and … there’s masculine energy to play with,” she said. “It’s in big venues. And I wanted to do something that was more intimate, more emotional, more raw and more personal to me.”

Nettles talked with Natalie Nyhus while she was in town, and said that her album hews closely to her roots, while still remaining country.

“You’ll hear echoes of gospel. You’ll hear echoes of ’70s radio, especially in the way that it’s produced,” she said. “You’ll hear singer-songwriter influence as well, and that’s really all of who I am as a musician.”

The first single from that project will be “That Girl.” It will be out on iTunes on Aug. 19.

Natalie Nyhus joined the WCCO-TV team in January of 2011. She anchors Saturday mornings and the "Best of Minnesota" franchise. Prior, she was awarded multiple daytime Emmy awards with WCCO This Morning, where she anchored and reported on traffic,...